Filling our bodies with light

For the past 3 weeks I have been on a book fast! This was a hard thing for me to do, as I love reading books. I always have at least 3-4 books on the go, and throughout my day I will often consult my books as thoughts, issues, and problems arise. However, few weeks ago, I became challenged about what I was feeding my mind. When it comes to books, I am a rather fussy reader. I tend to only read books which have been recommended to me or that I find on the bookshelves of my friends. But I was challenged about how I will easily pick up a book over my Bible! Now the majority of books I read are Christian and are filled with scripture, so often when I consult a book for direction I am led by the Word of God. However I was challenged to be more discerning when I read that even if scripture is part of the solution to what is written in a book, I need to check it out for myself. To study the context and background and be willing to delve further into the scriptures and allow God to lead me through His word. So I decided to put my book reading on hold for a while to increase my need for the word of God and to ensure I am being governed by the word of God, not by the words of man. The other reason is, I am starting up a Book club for our young adult girls in a month and I was challenged about the need for me to lead by example and be a discerning reader!

I must admit that it has been hard for me to stay away from books! There were many times when something would come up and there was the temptation to consult a book, but when I remembered that I was fasting from them, I was prompted to consult the word of God first. I also found that the a lot of the passages I was reading in my daily readings were coming up in the sermons I was hearing at church. I had already been meditating on these passages and then I would come to church and our pastor would expand on them further!

As is so happened, my husband preached last night on the Churches in Pergamum and Thyatira in Revelation who were led astray by false teachings and philosophies, and our need to know the truth, so we can discern false teachings. Here's a quote from his message.

"Heresy in the church is alive today as it has ever been. The dangerous thing about heresy or false teaching is that it looks like it could be the truth. In fact most heresy has a strong element of truth in it and that's what makes it so dangerous. Many well meaning Christians hear something or read something that looks pretty good, that uses bible verse to prove its point, the problem comes when you take that heresy to its end point it's always a lot further from the truth than you first thought. If it looked obviously wrong right from the start, no one would fall for it, but because it has an element of truth in it many get sucked in. I remember going through Bible college and the thing that struck out about church history and the many different cults and sects of the Christian church was that most of them started out wanting to correct some error that had crept in. Unfortunately they took their stand too far and ended up just teaching heresy."

He went on to talk about the plethora of books out there that are full of heresy and so many of us easily pick them up because they look good, they have a catchy title or nice cover or they are on the best sellers list. When it comes to non-fiction Christian books my reason for picking them up should be to draw me into a greater understanding of God and His word. I don't want to be easily persuaded by the ideas and teachings of man, the word of God is what should persuade me to change an attitude or action.

Over the weekend I made the decision to pick up books again, and I didn't realise how much I missed them! But I have learned how important it is to pray over what I am reading, to question what I am reading, and to search the scriptures to see things for myself and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me into His truth.

I was reading and praying through the following prayer from Matthew Henry's "Method for Prayer" this morning.

Let our wisdom not be from beneath, which is earthly, sensual, devilish; but wisdom from above, which is first pure, than peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

O that we may always have our conversation in the world, in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.

Lord, uphold us in our integrity, and set us before thy face for ever, and let integrity and uprightness preserve us, for we wait on thee.

Let our hearts be found in thy statutes, that we be not ashamed, and let our eye be single, that our whole body may be full of light.

All of this prayer has been based on scripture and the last line stood out to me, it comes from Matthew 6:22-23.

"The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!."

These verses are a challenge to make sure we expose our eyes to that which is good so that our bodies may be filled with light so that we can be lights in this dark world.